Should I Upgrade or Wait?

[imdog]

Hi
I’m currently using a late 2015 5K iMac (i5-6500), ever since I heard Apple was switching to their own silicon I’d decided to hold off upgrading until then. I’m trying to decide whether to get myself the new MacBook Pro & an external monitor for Christmas, or wait it out until Apple releases a silicon iMac. My use cases are 4K video editing (FCP), music production (Logic), & photo editing (LR/PS). From what I’m reading about the M1 chip, it seems that it somehow competes with the best desktop processors money can buy. The only thing I’m a little concerned with is 16GB of RAM, I’m not sure if they are able to optomize it somehow? iPhones & iPads perform awesome without much RAM. Should 16GB of RAM be good for my use case?

I’ve already been putting it off for a while and waiting, I don’t know how much longer until the first Apple silicon iMacs. Might not even be for another year from now? I’ve been working on music & making videos for a while and am really hoping to start a YouTube channel in the new year so I would love to upgrade soon! Should the MacBook Pro + External Monitor setup be nearly as good as the future iMac? Does the gap justify waiting potentially another year for?

 

[Yebubbleman]

Hi
I’m currently using a late 2015 5K iMac (i5-6500), ever since I heard Apple was switching to their own silicon I’d decided to hold off upgrading until then. I’m trying to decide whether to get myself the new MacBook Pro & an external monitor for Christmas, or wait it out until Apple releases a silicon iMac. My use cases are 4K video editing (FCP), music production (Logic), & photo editing (LR/PS). From what I’m reading about the M1 chip, it seems that it somehow competes with the best desktop processors money can buy. The only thing I’m a little concerned with is 16GB of RAM, I’m not sure if they are able to optomize it somehow? iPhones & iPads perform awesome without much RAM. Should 16GB of RAM be good for my use case?

I’ve already been putting it off for a while and waiting, I don’t know how much longer until the first Apple silicon iMacs. Might not even be for another year from now? I’ve been working on music & making videos for a while and am really hoping to start a YouTube channel in the new year so I would love to upgrade soon! Should the MacBook Pro + External Monitor setup be nearly as good as the future iMac? Does the gap justify waiting potentially another year for?

The M1 can make memory access faster (by giving everything equal access to it), but that doesn't negate a need for more memory capacity, especially when working with video files and large programs that would have to be loaded into RAM. If you're worried that 16GB won't be enough for you (which would've also been a problem on the Intel 8th Generation based 2020 Two-Port 13" MacBook Pro that today's M1 model directly replaces as that model also topped off at 16GB), then you'll need a 16" MacBook Pro or the 4-port 13" MacBook Pro. I'd imagine that, by the time Apple is ready to move those systems to Apple Silicon, they will have done so with an SoC that allows for more than 16GB of RAM.

 

[houttbe]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the hardware side. The main unknown is how the software offer will adjust. If you’re using mainly Apple apps, there is little risk and, judging by yesterday’s presentation, a lot of upside. On the other hand, if you’re relying on non-Apple software (Microsoft Office, Adobe,...) I’d wait a bit to get some insight in how they’re doing. If the apps are emulating through Rosetta, does performance remain acceptable? If the apps are running in native mode, are you losing any functionality?